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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Top 5 Poker Apps for the iPhone

Poker became ridiculously popular a few years ago and for a couple of years everyone and his brother were grinding away at online poker rooms hoping to eventually make a few million in the World Series of Poker. Now the poker boom has subsided, but there are still plenty of people who play. Naturally the game is also well represented on the iPhone. There are lots of poker apps in the App Store today, ranging from mediocre to quite good. In this article we'll take a closer look at some of the latter.

Live Poker (Zynga)If by a poker app you mean being able to play online poker just like at PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, the closest thing available is Live Poker by the developer and gaming network Zynga. Zynga has also produced the popular Facebook Texas Holdem app that millions of Facebook users waste their time on daily. You won't be able to play for real money, but other than that the game looks and behaves almost exactly like an online poker room. The best part is that you can connect via your Facebook account and play with people in your friends list.

Texas Hold'em (Apple)Apple has also developed a poker app. It's called "Texas Hold'em," which is the popular poker variant featured in the game. "Texas Hold'em" is definitely one of the most eye-pleasing poker games for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) - with an option to switch between the classic top-down table view and a more realistic first-person perspective where you can see their movements and potential "tells"

MegaPoker OnlineMegaPoker is also a Texas Holdem game with online functionality. It doesn't have as many users as Zynga, but the chances of finding a game right away are still pretty good.

MotionX PokerMotionX is neither Texas Holdem nor Five Card Draw; it's more like "inspired by poker" than real poker. Regardless it's a really fun game: you shake the iPhone to roll the dice, which represent a deck of cards. Then you tuck away the best "cards" and roll again to get a good poker hand. It doesn't sound like much, but the great gameplay and graphics makes it worthwhile.

iPhone Poker TimerThis is an app with more hands-on functionality; for those of you who host your own poker games, this Poker Timer keeps track of the tournament for you. It lets you know what level you are at and alerts you when it's time to raise the blinds.